I think that was a great read, but I'm biased because I think the collapse of Evangelicalism would be wonderful. Wouldn't an increasing 'secular tide' only increase tensions, and keep an us-vs-them christian warrior ideology strong? It's hard to imagine the evangelical political machine losing power. I can't imagine 25-35 percent of all americans are Evangelical. If that were true the republicans would never lose a national election, ever.
Very interesting article. But for a little longer perspective: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Awakening Either evangelicals inherently grate on the larger society, or they persistently fall into the same traps. In any case, the cyclicality seems inevitable. Evangelicals shouldn’t engage in too much naval gazing and angst that the cycle repeats.
Those are some interesting points in the 'why' section - certainly issues that should be addressed - but I think the 'collapse' is going a little overboard.
I'm biased because I think it would be wonderful, too. Maybe the Church could get back to Jesus. Though that's MY understanding of what the author is calling evangelical. I'd call myself evangelical, but only because I'd like to take that word back from what it's been co-opted for. This is stuff my Church has been talking about for a while now...we have no building....about 10-15 families....we borrow space from a church to meet on sunday evenings...we're very very very engaged in pockets of poverty on our side of town...and the huge churches in our area are calling us in to talk to them about how they can survive. They know their model centered around building big buildings with lots of seats for butts to fill...and measuring success (whatever that means) in how many seats are full...is dying. We tell them all the time, "dress up your sunday service as much as you want...change the time....it won't change the fact that the people you're trying to serve still don't care." We encourage them to love and serve with no sense of any "return" or "agenda" (putting more butts in the seats). To build real relationships. And that if Jesus is Jesus, he'll do all the rest. But make no mistake...this model is dying. I'm happy about that. I forwarded this article yesterday to some of the "leaders" in our church and got back responses saying, "yeah..that's what we've been saying....no surprise."
The downward trajectory of evangelicalism over the science and technology boom over the past 100 years should be no surprise to anyone. As we reach the limits of our knowledge we turn to God or some other ethos to fill in our conceptual blanks... those blanks are being filled at an alarming rate now. Religion has served it's purpose in history, but like always we move forward and leave superstition and tradition behind. It is inevitable.
Both of those passages caught my eye also. I remember I used to work with this lady at a bank and she was a born again. She was very "wild" for lack of a better term according to her in her youth, and she used to talk about her church all the time. I was interested in her church and she gave me a tape of one her pastor's sermons. I play the tape on the way home and the dude is just railing on how gay people need to be saved. I brought it up with her the next day, kind of casually because I didn't want to argue, and she started railing on how gay people needed to be saved. Turned me off completely.
Sadly Max your type of faith, creed, and service is the exception to the rule.. if only it were the other way around. I wouldn't mind a few more evangelicals like you around, that's for sure.
Kind words..thanks. I think it starts with tearing down the "Christendom" that's been built in this country, first. I won't be alive to see that completely, I don't believe.
Hey Max, I was wondering if you had heard of the pastor(it has since spread to many other pastors doing it) who gave out money at church? He took $10,000 from the church budget and gave people $100 each and told them they had to spend it or invest it doing good. The people did amazing things with it. Some just gave it to people to help pay bills, or buy food, but others used to invest and raise even more money which went to do things like Women's shelters etc. The pastor said he wanted to teach people the joys of giving or helping others, and it appears to have worked out for them. There's a book that I borrowed about it. I can't remember the name right now. Anyway I thought it was pretty neat. It's a neat idea, and your congregation sounds like it's way past that stage of needing something like this, but it was a good read.
We did it with $10 each about 2 years ago And then set up a blog where everyone could write in what they did with it and the stories that came out of it.
I agree. MadMax's comments on this board are one of the very few things that keep me holding on to some of my positive views on religion/faith.
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/E6sG9M1IIL4&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/E6sG9M1IIL4&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PicFTdnkTFI&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PicFTdnkTFI&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> This guy is a genius, and his website lists a Houston address. MadMax, is this you?
I always get that feeling when I read these articles. I go to a church that calls itself "reformed evangelical" and it doesn't look much like the evangelical churches these kinds of articles describe.
Doesn't it just technically mean a Christian who evangelizes? That would be, as I understand it, reaches out and attempts to convert people to the faith.
that's what I understood it as, but to be technical, I think that's redundant because I think Christian implies that you are supposed to profess the faith
